Baz Luhrmann`s Australia

With Saturn and Uranus opposing each other, nothing stays as it was
- since the Saturn-Uranus opposition became valid in November 2008,
we may experience how restriction and freedom, responsibility and the
lack of bonds, familiar standards and renewal as well as trying to
find a balance between those dualities gets into focus. Appropriately
last year a movie hit the theatres, which seems to tell a big story
about love and battle and self-determination in the manner of the forties'
classical epic, but in fact very subtly changes the genre - of course
with Saturn at hand in a respectful manner.

Even
more evident than in the artful orchestration itself, the illustration
of Saturn opposite Uranus becomes palpable in the love story between
an English lady and an Australian drover. The story is told in a romantic
and sometimes even magical manner by a little boy, who as a half-caste
is rejected by society and in danger of being carried away to a re-education
camp. The boy, who finds himself amidst a struggle of restrictive social
standards (Saturn) and the lack of belonging (Uranus), chooses the lovers-to-be
as his future parents. But the thrown together family has to go a long
and dramatic way till it gets it's happy ending.

Saturn and Uranus as lovers?

The multiple variations in the challenging interaction (which is
the effect of an opposition aspect) between Saturn in Virgo and Uranus
in Pisces are expressively illustrated in the characters of the Victorian
and austere English lady and the freedom-loving, detached social misfit.
She shows Virgo-qualities in being always busy, always considerate
about tidiness, propriety and manners, while he defies social conventions
and eludes responsibility by passive resistance, thus evoking the Pisces-Uranus.
Since a love story evolves between the two, according to astrological
archetypes and an astrosemiotic interpretation they also have to be
read here as Venus and Mars:

In
Lady Ashley (Nicole Kidman makes the transformation from pale and aristocratic
to very down-to-earth quite credible) we see Venus in Virgo - connected
to Saturn - , who seems uptight and reserved as well as practical,
ready to help and modest. Amidst the Australian outback she manages
to create a beautiful and tasteful surrounding. She doesn't like to
loose her self-control and appears to be insecure when things get emotional,
but she can be (unintentionally) seductive and very devoted.

Drover, the man named after his job - which seems appropriate for the
Pisces - quality of transcending individuality - , under his seemingly
rough surface is a perceptive and in fact soft and tender Mars in Pisces,
who uses his fighting power only for the benefit of weaker ones, respectively
- because of his strong connection to Uranus - for freedom and the
right to self-determination. (Played by Hugh Jackman, the character
is deliberately and with a sense of humour staged as eye-candy for
the female audience, thus again emphasizing his passivity.) Since Drover
was married to an Aborigine, he became an outcast to the white community
and so he withdrew from society into solitude and the company of other
outsiders.

Chosen and renewed patterns

At first repelling then attracting each other, the sentence „Just
because it is, doesn't mean it should be" is used by both characters
describing and accompanying their effect on each other. Each influences
and transforms the other, they change roles along the opposition axis
and find their persona's positive and prolific aspects mirrored in
the other. Thus the rigid lady suddenly courageously demands change
and questions social standards, she becomes spontaneous and animated
and challenges the passive outsider to actively defy social conventions.
The detached rebel changes his distanced attitude, starts taking an
interest and finally a place in a sort of community, he meddles, even
settles down a little and accepts a kind of paternal responsibility.

The challenging interaction between Saturn and Uranus causes scrutinizing
and judging of a status quo for it's balance between solid structure
and free choice and it effects renewal in the - according to the value
of individuality - "right" places. Inside the narrative of Luhrmann's Australia this
process is supported and clearly illustrated by the love story, while
on another plain of interpretation the interplay of Saturn and Uranus
is very subtly mirrored by the staging of a conventional genre in a
postmodern way.

Vesna Ivkovic

Vesna Ivkovic studied literature and linguistics, sociology, philosophy and
history and as well took a profound interest in psychology, mythology and
different belief systems. Along the way she also explored various paths of
body awareness such as the martial arts of Kung Fu, Dance, Yoga, Qi Gong and
several other methods of body work and motion arts. In 1993 she discovered
astrology as an instrument of knowledge and graduated in 2004 in Markus
Jehle's and Petra Niehaus' master class at the Astrology Center Berlin.
You can find out more about the author and her work on her own website www.astrosemiotics.de

The Cinemascope is meant to give an overview of current movies and their main themes from an astrosemiotical perspective (i.e.: regarding film as semiotic system and translating it into the astrological semiotic system). A well made movie not only has a story and a certain theme, it also provides a special atmosphere, a certain feeling and it draws us into its very own world. This basic quality that is contrived through characters, plot, setting and many other components also translates into one or more astrological principles. Quite simply: a fast-paced action-flick confronts us with plain Aries energy, a horror-movie evokes Scorpio-like abysmal depths and fears etc. We step out of the theatre and – if the film succeeded in sucking us in – find ourselves dwelling on and engaging in that special energetic quality.

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